Sunday, August 31, 2008

sunday short stack



"Nihilism is best done by professionals."
- Iggy Pop


Saturday, August 30, 2008

stop overloading my lady brain



Joe Conason at Salon: Even as a political tactic, choosing Palin may well backfire. Presumably the same Clinton voters who were willing to vote for McCain mostly to vote against Obama -- despite the Arizona senator's right-wing record on reproductive rights and pay equity -- will be pleased by the choice of Palin. But by definition those voters were already attracted to the Republican side. The calculation is that millions of undecided Hillary backers will cross partisan lines because a woman is on McCain's ticket. But will they believe that Palin is comparable to Clinton just because both happen to be female? Or will they regard that comparison as an insult to their heroine?

the writerly life

The latest issue of Boldtype features books on writing books.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

'cause I'm champagne...

Good news: I have no idea what a "financial shingle" is, but one called Werc Werk Works is producing a sequel (!) to Todd Solondz's 1998 film Happiness.

Bad news: Aaron Sorkin is writing a film about...Facebook?

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

a ticket from the dictionary police

What makes a word a real word?

But if all these words look wordish, sound wordish, and act wordish, why are they all hedged about with the namby-pamby "I know it's not a real word" disclaimers? (Note: wordish is a perfectly good word.) We all know that there are words that no one can complain about (when was the last time you heard a grammar rant about apple or Tuesday or fair?) and words that almost everyone finds offensive (no need to print them in a newspaper). What we don't have a firm grasp on is the acceptability of a wide range of other words, especially words we've hung affixes on. Redness is OK, but what about grossness? Heroism is fine, but what about thespianism? We have similar problems with words that have undergone a shift in function or part of speech ("shopping at thrift store" becoming thrifting, anonymous becoming verbed as anonymize), nonstandard forms (funner, huger, interestinger), and, of course, any slang words someone hasn't personally heard or used (chillaxing, wackaloon). What does a word have to do to be a "real word"?

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

scenes from sunset junction 2008

I swear, this is not becoming a photo blog (I already have one of those), but I wanted to get these Sunset Junction shots up before it's September. Yes, that says "bacon wrapped hot dogs" and one of these years, I will try the funnel cake.





We got our dance on with !!!...


...and Kinky.

Don't ask.


Monday, August 25, 2008

Sunday, August 24, 2008

sunday short stack


"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." - Samuel Johnson


Wednesday, August 20, 2008

stop spreading the news

I'm leaving today...New York, that is. Well, technically tomorrow, but today will be my last day and I'm feeling blue. Here are a few of my favorite summer photos:











Tuesday, August 19, 2008

like a slug in a sandpaper trenchcoat

While Bulwer Lytton's ancestors may not approve, the annual winners for the worst opening sentence have been announced. Garrison Spik is the winner:

Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped "Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."

Via WI

Sunday, August 17, 2008

sunday short stack

"I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth." - Janeane Garofalo


Monday, August 11, 2008

korean scientists only charge $53,000 to clone a dog

WFMU's Beware of the Blog pitches the true story of Joyce McKinney as a Coen Brothers film.

A young cheerleader from North Carolina moves to Wyoming where she wins the state beauty pageant. Then she enrolls in graduate school at Brigham Young University where she becomes obsessed with Wayne Osmond (the second oldest Osmond). Wayne rejects her, but happiness is around the corner because she meets and falls in love with a 19-year-old Mormon classmate. They have a lot of sex. Alas, the Mormon is shamed by their sex-before-marriage and runs away to do missionary work. He leaves no forwarding address.

Our heroine then hires a pair of kooky private detectives who track the Mormon to London. She heads to the U.K., and with the help of a dim-witted accomplice, drugs the Mormon with Chloroform, kidnaps him, and scurries him away to a secluded farmhouse. There she ties the Mormon to a bed with furry handcuffs, and uses scriptures to beg him to marry her. When that doesn't work, she tries lots of sex. But the Mormon escapes, and when the police track down our heroine, she declares innocence, claiming that the Mormon could only orgasm while tied up. She sounds completely nutty in court - "I loved him so much that I would have skied down Mount Everest in the nude with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to." - but has a Southern Belle style that makes the media go crazy for her.

...and there's more.-

Sunday, August 10, 2008

sunday short stack

"I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it.” - William S. Burroughs


Thursday, August 07, 2008

hamlet and friends update their facebook status

Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.

Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.

The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.

Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.

Hamlet's father is now a zombie.

More here.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

a damned mob of scribbling women

I just had reason to list some of my favorite recent writing by women, so I thought I'd post the recommendations here in case anyone is interested.

For good measure, my two favorite contemporary novels by men are David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I can't recommend either of them highly enough.

see you at the debates, bitches